Solidarity with our Coptic Brothers and Sisters!

Islamic State Video Shows Beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians

By Rukmini Callimachi and David D. Kirkpatrick- NYT

A video released Sunday by the Islamic State appears to show the mass beheading of a group of 21 Coptic Christians, who are made to kneel beside the sea in what is identified as the coast near Tripoli, Libya.

It is the first time that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has released an official video showing such a killing outside of the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq.

The footage begins with slow motion images of the Egyptian Christian hostages, who were kidnapped in Libya several weeks ago, walking single file along the sandy beach. The hostages are all wearing orange jumpsuits. Each one is led by a black-clad executioner who is grasping a knife. The only sound is that of the crashing waves. They are made to kneel, and then one by one they are beheaded.

The lead executioner, who wears a brown mask over his face, thrusts his dagger at the camera. “Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq’s plain, chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time,” he says in fluent English, using terms referring to localities in and around Syria. “And today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.”

The high-quality video, which bears the logo of Al Hayat, the official publishing arm of the Islamic State, is in stark contrast to the footage released in the past by affiliates of the group. The footage in those videos was shaky and grainy, suggesting an amateur production. By contrast, the five-minute clip released Sunday is professional and cinematic, and is filmed in the same style as previous Islamic State videos, including one that showed the mass beheading of captured Syrian soldiers last year.

The video suggests that at least some of the Islamic State’s franchises abroad are becoming ever more tightly linked with the central group. Stills of the Libya video appeared last week in Dabiq, the Islamic State’s official English-language magazine. And the footage released today was preceded by an announcement on the group’s official news media, which foreshadowed the release, saying: “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”

The Egyptian military said it carried out dawn air strikes on Monday against groups in Libya affiliated with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after the extremists posted footage showing the beheading of a group of Egyptian workers in the central Libyan city of Sirte.

A spokesman for the Egyptian military said the air force hit training camps and weapons caches belonging to the extremists. State television showed footage of fighter jets taking off in Egypt. The military spokesman said all returned safely after accomplishing their mission “with accuracy”.

He said the raids were “to avenge and respond to the criminal acts by terrorist groups and elements inside and outside the country”.

Patrick Cockburn is a decent analyst but he is a determined defeatist with regard to ISIS. He was telling us in October that ISIS would win in Kobani, and now he’s just moved on to hope that it can hold Mosul. It will eventually lose Mosul. Then he will move on again.

“If the army does attack it will face formidable resistance from the armed forces of Isis that may now number well over 100,000 in Iraq and Syria. ”

An army that is reduced to sending teenagers who’ve never fired a gun and police officers from its own capital Raqqa to fight and die at Kobani does not have a strength of 100,000 in any meaningful sense. That’s wishful ‘anti-imperialist’ thinking, and we have been here before time and again with Fisk, Cockburn and co talking up the opposition. ISIS in Mosul will be squeezed to death and there is nothing that Patrick or ISIS can do about it.